Portable communication devices such as cellular telephones and wireless personal digital assistants (PDAs) transmit and receive electromagnetic waves through an antenna. In addition to other factors, the efficiency and quality of communication is based on the characteristics of the antenna. The antenna efficiency over a frequency band is often compromised to meet size and shape requirements of the portable communication device designs. In addition, portable communication devices may transmit and receive within different frequency bands requiring the antenna to have sufficient performance over both frequency bands. In conventional portable communication devices, the performance within one or both of the frequency bands is compromised to maintain an antenna operational bandwidth that incorporates both of the frequency bands. In addition, the link budget for either the uplink or downlink is fixed in conventional communication devices. Link budget is a system parameter that refers to the amount of transmission power and receiver sensitivity needed to establish a communication link between the base station and the communication device through a wireless communication channel. The link budget takes into account propagation loss, cable losses, and antenna directivity. During half duplex communication, such as push-to-talk (PTT) or one-way file transfers, the link budget for the communication direction (either uplink or downlink) with user data is more important than the communication direction without any user data. Conventional antenna systems in portable communication devices are not adjustable based on data activity.
Accordingly, there is a need for an apparatus, system, and method for managing an antenna network of a portable communication device.